Student Filmmakers - June 2008 - (Page 16) HD Production Pre-Viz As computers join the many tools a writer and director have at their disposal, the technique of pre-visualization or “previz” will become more common and easier to apply. Pre-viz began as a computerized extension of storyboard design, where authors who had little graphic skills could create passable storyboards for use in pitching and filming a story. Today, exotic software allows for real time, animated, 3-D “storyboards” to be created and then employed on the set as part of a new “decision-making-media” toolset. An adjunct to the pre-viz toolset, camcorder shots can easily be incorporated into any pre-viz workflow, regardless of On one occasion, while demonstrating this technique for a large class, I hooked up the camcorder via an optional HDMI cable to a projector. The brilliant image, cast onto a 10’ wide screen satisfied everyone’s desire to see through the director’s eyes. A student then suggested that the DP incorporate the projected image into the film scene! The story certainly supported the idea and in moments, we adapted the classroom experience to accommodate another “director’s” suggestion. land right on the lens, creating the suicidal climax to his scene. You might not want to risk the $1,500 that an HD camcorder costs, but by clever rigging, you can often get some unusual attitudes that can exponentially expand the perspective of your film. Consider placing the camera on the end of a telescopic microphone boom, pointing it into your set and getting a simulated helicopter shot. This was recently done on the top of the Empire State Building (the director had previous permission from building management and local security authorities) to explore the feasibility of a sky shot and the result was so much less expensive and so good the camcorder was used instead. Just as you can go high, you can go low. Tether the camera on two lengths of fishing line (to keep it from spinning) and lower it over a cliff, into a well, wherever you need to take your audience for a thrill. You won’t look in your viewfinder to get this angle, I can assure you! how sophisticated the support technology maybe. For instance, a hardcopy storyboard can be videotaped and loaded into a camcorder with voices reading the dialogue, to form an “animatic storyboard.” On the set, the director can rehearse his actors, then insert the rehearsal into the animatic. The scene can then be viewed by the various departments prior to setbuilding, lighting or any other time prior to “action.” Finally, the continuity person can verify the shoot by comparing the animatic with the actual video tap recording of the filmed scene. Unusual Attitudes During the filming of “A Clockwork Orange,” Stanley Kubrick, fiddling with his director’s viewfinder, got the idea of creating a point of view (POV) shot from the eyes of an actor falling out of a second story window. Not wanting to risk his principal (rented) camera, he took an inexpensive (and very durable) 35mm camera, stuffed it into a styrofoam ball, and tossed it out the window. Stanley, being Stanley, used up six of these cameras until he got one to SUP Occasionally, a director may disagree with other members of the team. In one such example, the Director of Photography, whom you will recall does not work for the director, but for the producer, may so strongly disagree with the director that she may resort to writing, “S.U.P.” (shot under protest) on the slate. This covers the DP’s posterior, because a producer, unhappy with a daily, may resort to blaming the DP 1 studentfilmmakers June 2008
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